Author Web Sites

Well, as we were supposed to do for this week, I've checked out some of the websites of my favorite writers. (Note: I couldn't remember what we were supposed to look up for our favorite writers who are dead so I stuck with ones who are still alive.) Here are my brief summaries of each.

Cheryl Strayed's page: Her site is pretty expansive, with lots of stuff to click on and check out. She has links to her column on The Rumpus, to her tumblr blog. She also has a lot of pictures of herself, a long bio, and a trailer for her most recent book. I like how interactive Strayed's site is and the fact that it feels like it is a place that she maintains herself, but I'm into keeping things a bit more simple, methinks.

Joan Didion's site: Didion's site definitely lacks the personal feel. It's definitely maintained by a publicist, which is no great surprise given Didion's famous stature. Even the link to Didion's twitter account reveals that her tweets are written by "Ariel and Zach", huh? Boring. On the plus side, at the top of her home page, there's a drawing/caricature of Didion that is very cute and makes the site seem more homey, if only slightly.

David Sedaris: I expected more from this funny man's site. Like Didion, it's not very personal (it seems that the level of personalization corresponds with one's fame as a writer). What is cool about his site is that the home page has five things at the bottom (I don't know what they are called) that you can hover over and hear Sedaris reading one of his essays to a live audience. You can also link to interviews with him and appearances, etc. I also love that he has a downloadable app called David's Diary.

Dave Eggers nonexistent site: Dave Eggers doesn't even have a personal site. This link goes to McSweeney's, which has lots of great stuff on it, but is a product of Eggers and not about Eggers. Or is it? Maybe this is the best way to represent yourself.

I also looked at Lorrie Moore, who only had a Facebook page that was maintained by her publisher. All of this got me thinking about one thing more than any other. What's the point of having a website? For the more established writers, (if they even have one) it seems that they use it as a mere marketing tool--a place to sell books and showcase what they've written or where they might currently be writing. What struck me was that, I don't think that I'd have a reason to go to any of their sites more than one time.

As a less established writer, the goals of my website are different. I'd like for it to be a place where people can read my writing (crazy, I know), where they can get to know who I am as a writer. I'd like for the site to be interesting enough that they would feel compelled to check back from time to time to see what's new. For now, it seems that the best way to do this is by putting up good content, but I realize that I'm going to need to figure out a way to attract some web traffic since there are millions of blogs.